(Yes, I am standing outside in the freezing cold, leaning against an icy brick wall and pretending that this is completely normal.)
I would have happily blogged about this amazing top earlier, if I hadn’t been so sick at the end of November (through the beginning of December!). Then the holiday rush, and suddenly it was 2019. But! I am SO happy with how this turned out, and made a couple of mods.
I originally wrote this pattern for a sportweight yarn, which is often a slightly heavier fingering weight (a lot of single ply fingering yarns can fall into this category because they are often so ‘fluffy’). But I wanted to try the pattern with a DK yarn and see how it would work out. Sometimes changing the weight of the yarn and not the needle size can have disastrous effects on the way the fabric works up, as it can create an overly dense and heavy fabric. But! The original top is light and airy, and I was curious to see if the pattern could be done in a DK weight and still turn out really well…. this is hardly a story of suspense, because I think it turned out just the way I had hoped.
Oh, and if you need a refresher on the original pattern and camisole, you can find it here.
The yarn is from Cosy Posy Yarn Co, an indie yarn dyer in Ontario Canada that I have been swooning over for a while. The colourway is called Imaginary Friend, which is such a pretty array of flecks and speckles of confetti colours on a warm vanilla base, and it was a dream to work with. There were so any colours that I loved, I was lucky that this colourway was available on the DK base, as she has so many different ones to choose from.
As it is a DK weight and not a sportweight, the camisole is heavier than the original version, but I like that cozy factor. I didn’t have any trouble using the same needle size for the original pattern as the original is light an airy, so the fabric of the DK sits well and has lots of drape. I had to shorten the straps a little bit, as the additional weight of the fabric made them stretch almost an extra inch, but that was the sort of learning curve I was expecting with changing the gauge.
The biggest challenge in the adjustment was that even when using the same needle size, using a bigger yarn means that your gauge is going to be different, which I noticed when working the top edging. It was a bit loose when I did the first bind off, so I ripped it back (fortunately it’s only 2 rows!) and then worked some evenly paced k2 tog throughout, to bring it in closer to my actual measurements at the upper bust. Otherwise, I’d be counting on the drawstring ties to do a lot of the cinching in that they were not designed to do, and it would mess up the appearance of the neck placket.
Some of you may remember the cardigan I’m wearing it with- the upcycled Anthropologie inspired cardigan from (whoa) 2012. I have a 3 part tutorial on making this, if you are interested – over on the tutorials page. I need to make another one….